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Do you edit as you go or wait for a full first draft?

thehansell

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Straw poll everyone!

I'm curious. Are you a person who goes back and tweaks what you've just written right away? Or do you wait until you've got a full first draft behind you before diving back in? Are you somewhere in between?

For my current writing project I'm waiting until I've got that first draft. From bitter experience I know if I go back to chapter one for a quick edit I will never get out. It's like a black hole that sucks me into its orbit and before I know it I've re-written the first three pages from scratch.

So where do you land? Has anyone drifted from one way to the other over time?
 

KTC

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I would never ever ever go back and edit. Full speed ahead until I type THE END. Then the editing commences.

Every single writer has to find their own way. And they have to find their own way with each project. (-:
 

Harlequin

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In between, but I usually do some editing every session. My first drafts are typically very clean from a proofreading perspective. I can't push forward if there are a lot of errors.

I tend to write out of order and a lot of thta editing is finding a home for floating scenes or text, joining up disconnected fragments, and that sort of thing.

My first draft of ms1 took around 4 months and had more editing afterwards. The first draft of Ms2 is going to take me about 4 months again, with hopefully less editing afterwards.
 
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lizmonster

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I would never ever ever go back and edit. Full speed ahead until I type THE END. Then the editing commences.

Every single writer has to find their own way. And they have to find their own way with each project. (-:

Ditto here, more or less - I generally read the end of what I did the day before to get my momentum back, and I may make line-edit changes, but no wholesale restructuring until the draft is finished.

Of course, sometimes the wholesale restructuring is a great big rewrite, so I'm not sure my process is all that efficient. :D
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Mostly I do stream-of-consciousness. I might occasionally go back and change something if it creates an continuity or consistency issue, or I might just add a comment on it to fix it later, but "editing" is a black hole.
 

Chris P

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I used to edit as I went. I finished six books that way, and personally was happy with them. However, those few (including the very few agents and publishers) who read them weren't as impressed. One possibility is that my final versions might not have been more than highly edited first drafts. This isn't the case with every editor-as-they-go, but I had to be open to the possibility that this was the case with me.

So my current and next projects are going to be sprints to The End, followed by throwing it in the trash and writing the entire thing over again. No copy and paste from the first version (kills my heart!), no going back to consult, no nothing. Let's see what happens. What I was doing before wasn't working (for me and for my publication goals).
 

BethS

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Straw poll everyone!

Are you a person who goes back and tweaks what you've just written right away? Or do you wait until you've got a full first draft behind you before diving back in?

I constantly revise and edit as I write. I couldn't do it any other way. Usually the first thing to land on the page, particularly when I'm not warmed up, is whatever's floating on the top of my brain, the accumulated, tired detritus of everyday language and cliches. Kind of like pond scum. I just haven't the will to revise a whole novel's worth of pond scum. So there's that. And another, more important reason is that as I rewrite sentences and paragraphs, and go over and over and over the scene-in-progress, the real story emerges, like a butterfly crawling out of its chrysalis. That would never happen if I hurried along slapping words on the page.

And finally, rewriting as I go comes naturally to me. I'm neither right- nor left-brain dominant, but an equal balance between both, so I don't really have a drafting mode and a revising mode. It's all one process.
 
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indianroads

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I'm an outliner rather than a panster - so a lot of the creative work on the novel is already done before I set in on the serious writing. I write in order, and I know what the purpose of each chapter is, and I have bullet points to hit along the way. It usually takes me a while to get started in the morning though - I sort of, have to find my MC in my mind and start seeing through his eyes. I edit as I write, and when I'm done with a chapter I usually go back and read it through before proceeding to the next one.

This process works for me - but it's certainly not for everyone.
 

Bufty

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So that's why it's taking me years and years and years. That's a relief.

Must show this to her who says- Isn't that finished yet? :snoopy:

I constantly revise and edit as I write. I couldn't do it any other way. Usually the first thing to land on the page, particularly when I'm not warmed up, is whatever's floating on the top of my brain, the accumulated, tired detritus of everyday language and cliches. Kind of like pond scum. I just haven't the will to revise a whole novel's worth of pond scum. So there's that. And another, more important reason is that as I rewrite sentences and paragraphs, and go over and over and over the scene-in-progress, the real story emerges, like a butterfly crawling out of its chrysalis. That would never happen if I hurried along slapping words on the page.

And finally, rewriting as I go comes naturally to me. I'm neither right- nor left-brain dominant, but an equal balance between both, so I don't really have a drafting mode and a revising mode. It's all one process.
 

Marissa D

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It's always reassuring to learn one is not alone in the universe. :)

You're not alone, Beth--that's pretty much my process too. Editing what I wrote the previous day helps me ease into the new day's words...and often those edits might shake something loose in my head that hadn't come up before, and lead me down a slightly (or very) different path. It works for me...
 

Murffy

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I tend to hand-write my big projects in composition books and edit as I go. If I finish a scene or something, I'll go back, read it over and make some edits if needed. I compose on the odd pages and use the even pages for rewrites and insertions. Sometimes stuff I write later informs stuff I wrote before so I go back and tinker or revise. I always seem to be rereading and tinkering as I go.

The next layer of editing comes when I enter the text into the computer. There are times when I'll do a considerable amount of revision or cutting at that point. Then a lot of rereading, massaging and revising. On my last project, the digitized version was about two chapters behind the hand-written text.
 

ap123

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I edit as I go. Not just the work of the day (or session) before, I'll realize something didn't work (or could work) three, four, ten chapters back and go back. Then again when it's all done.
 

Ji'ire

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I'd say a mix of both, I usually prefer to just get a first draft done but will reread through what I've got as I'm thinking of ideas for what comes next and make small corrections.

Occasionally it feels like I have to work on a certain bit before progressing, either when the part is too confusing or there isn't a good enough link to what follows. In those cases I'll sit and try to correct it before moving on.
 

thehansell

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I constantly revise and edit as I write. I couldn't do it any other way. Usually the first thing to land on the page, particularly when I'm not warmed up, is whatever's floating on the top of my brain, the accumulated, tired detritus of everyday language and cliches. Kind of like pond scum. I just haven't the will to revise a whole novel's worth of pond scum. So there's that.

While I'm more of a sprint-to-the-finish guy, the "pond scum" stuff definitely rings true to me as well. It's so weird how many banal stock phrases my brain has accumulated over the years to mess with my first draft. Hell, I just used the phrase "rings true", which has been done to death (as has "done to death").

I do a fair amount of outlining though, so revision is usually focused on sharpening that stuff up more than anything else (hopefully).
 

Will Collins

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I find myself mainly waiting until the first draft is complete, but sometimes there's a few edits as I go.
 

Carrie in PA

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Mostly I do stream-of-consciousness. I might occasionally go back and change something if it creates an continuity or consistency issue, or I might just add a comment on it to fix it later, but "editing" is a black hole.

^ This.

I make good use of the Comments feature in Word so I can fix things after the first draft is done. In general, I don't go back and make changes until the first draft is done, but it's been known to happen on a few occasions.

ETA: I think the reason is that for me, it's a completely different mindset for drafting vs editing. When I'm deep into one task is not the optimal time to attempt the other.
 
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Blaireh

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My process is very long, I first write everything out long handed and then type it up, this sometimes lends itself to editing and rewriting. I frequently go up type it up when I feel I have written myself into a corner and I feel stuck, but sometimes I like going back and reading what I wrote and tweaking my writing to get myself out of the corner. When I am writing and the words are flowing I just keep writing and if I feel that a sentence is wrong or I have over used a word I underline it and know that when I am typing it up I will take time to fix it.
 

Mel101

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If it's a first draft, I'll go back and make edits. But then again, the draft is riddled with brackets that tell me what needs to be added and where and why. But I also took the advice that I think Nora Roberts gave: end your writing day on a cliff hanger (or something like that). That way, I'm excited to get to the next chapter and a quick edit won't distract me.
 

LJD

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Wait for a full draft. (Then let it sit for a while...)
 

MythMonger

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I just started my third manuscript, so I can actually see some trends.

First manuscript: seven drafts (trunked)

Second manuscript: seven drafts. Even after the seventh draft I still found silly things, like a missing period and a mixed-up you're/your. Spent the past few weeks proofreading/revising before finally submitting to agents.

Third manuscript, which I just started over the weekend: I see no need to go back and proofread if I'm in it for at least three or four drafts. I went back and added some points I didn't want to forget the next time around, but otherwise I'm full steam ahead.
 

Harlequin

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Been thinking about this a little.

What trips me up are the emotional transitions. The plot points I generally know and those are, I feel, relatively easy to hit.

But doing the gradual transition from how a character feels and reacts in relation to the ongoing events is where I tend to stumble. If I get that wrong in earlier sections, then I get it wrong in later sections by default, too, then I've just made more work for myself.

I also change my mind on details as I go and sometimes need to dip back and fix all those continuity errors; I also write out of order and lose my sense of pacing.
 

SciSarahTops

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I constantly revise and edit as I write. I couldn't do it any other way. Usually the first thing to land on the page, particularly when I'm not warmed up, is whatever's floating on the top of my brain, the accumulated, tired detritus of everyday language and cliches. Kind of like pond scum. I just haven't the will to revise a whole novel's worth of pond scum. So there's that. And another, more important reason is that as I rewrite sentences and paragraphs, and go over and over and over the scene-in-progress, the real story emerges, like a butterfly crawling out of its chrysalis. That would never happen if I hurried along slapping words on the page.

And finally, rewriting as I go comes naturally to me. I'm neither right- nor left-brain dominant, but an equal balance between both, so I don't really have a drafting mode and a revising mode. It's all one process.

Ah, I love this decription. I feel like it's a bit like what I've been doing, layering the work up like an onion. I can't get on with writing without revisiting the last part and I always see mistakes. I am a terribly innacurate typer. I am worried about the highly edited first draft syndrome Chris P mentions though. I hadn't considered that before.